The presidential challenge coin is now Trumpified and MDC says, it looks tacky.

The commander in chief took a hands-on role in the redesign of the challenge coin, a medallion that presidents hand out as mementos, according to reports.

The new presidential hardware screams Trump. The coin is shiny and gold — a change from the drab, brass-colored look of coins issued by his predecessors, like the one from former President ­Barack Obama.

The US motto, “E pluribus unum,” has been replaced by Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

In addition, the coins are no longer round. Instead, they have a “Donald J. Trump” banner on the bottom edge.

The White House “We the People” petition site — where citizens lobbied for issues such as LGBT rights and the “construction of a Death Star” — was temporarily shut down on Monday.

The Trump administration said the platform, created during the Obama administration, will return in late January as a new site.

A White House official says the move will save taxpayers $1.3 million annually.

The site launched in 2011 and was initially named “We the People.”

Some of the petitions caught on as viral stunts while others addressed more serious concerns.

In 2015, the death of Leelak Alcorn sparked a petition on the site to ban “conversion therapy.” It received more than 120,000 signatures.

The 17-year-old Alcorn left a online note before committing suicide that explained how religious therapists had tried to convert her.

As a response to the petition, President Obama called for an end to “conversion therapy” for gay and transgender teens.

In a statement posted on the site, a senior adviser to Obama said the White House shared the concern about conversion therapy’s “potentially devastating effects” on LGBT youth.

In November 2012, a petition asking the Obama Administration to “begin construction of a Death Star” was met with a less than enthusiastic response.

“The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it,” read the statement from Paul Shawcross, chief of the science and space branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

“The Administration does not support blowing up planets. Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”

The Death Star is a moon-shaped battle station in the science fiction film “Star Wars.”

The official from the Trump administration said that all existing petitions and responses will be restored next year.

Angelia Fowler was surprised to learn that the debt-collection agency she says is ruining her life is owned by the hospital company that saved it.

Fowler had been sick for months in November 2015 when her son finally took her to the emergency room with what turned out to be pneumonia. She spent much of the next month in a coma in intensive care at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The bill arrived in January. After discounts, the hospital wanted her to pay $80,770. Other bills from specialists boosted the sum she owed above six figures, enough to buy a condo in West Palm Beach. It was a sum she couldn’t pay.

Millions of patients like Fowler are on the receiving end of the health-care industry’s collections machine. The amount of past-due medical debt in the U.S. is about $75 billion, spread among 43 million people, according to estimates from economists at MIT, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. About half of all collections lines on credit reports are related to medical debt, a 2014 report (PDF) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau showed.

Fowler, who is uninsured and doesn’t qualify for Medicaid in Florida, lives off unemployment and help from her son, a chef. The bill from St. Mary’s went to a collections agency called Central Financial Control, which reported it to credit bureaus. Though Fowler attained a Master of Business Administration degree online this fall, she said three employers have declined to hire her because of the medical debt, a practice that’s legal in Florida and 38 other states.

“When you’re handed this type of debt because of health reasons, it is like a set of debt handcuffs,” said Fowler, who is now 60. “It throws your life off trajectory.”

43 million Americans owe about $75 billion in past-due medical debt.

Though Fowler didn’t realize it, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Central Financial Control are both owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., the for-profit hospital operator. As Tenet and other hospital companies struggle to make money providing medical care, they are turning to the profitable and growing business of collecting debt.

Most hospitals have finance departments or outside companies that try to ensure they get paid by insurers and patients. But Tenet has gone a step further than most, turning its operation into a separate business line called Conifer and contracting its services to other medical providers.

Conifer serves the 77 hospitals Tenet operates. It also works for more than 700 others, including hospitals run by the nonprofit Catholic Health Initiatives, which owns a minority stake in the business. The collections agency that contacted Fowler, Central Financial Control, is the operating name of a Conifer subsidiary called Syndicated Office Systems LLC.

Conifer is one of the few bright spots at Tenet. The Dallas-based company is selling off hospitals to manage its $15 billion debt load. Even as Tenet has unloaded hospitals, it keeps them on as clients of Conifer, according to the company’s earnings presentation (PDF) last month. Acting Chief Executive Officer Ronald Rittenmeyer, during Tenet’s earnings call Nov. 7, said he plans to cut jobs at Conifer, which employed 15,570 people at the end of 2016.

While Conifer accounts for just 5 percent of Tenet’s revenue, it has an outsize influence on the company’s bottom line. Measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, Conifer’s margins have been roughly twice as large as those in Tenet’s hospital business. The parent company doesn’t directly report how much Conifer contributes to its net income.

Tenet and Conifer declined to make executives available for an interview. In an emailed statement, Ryan Lieber, a spokesman for St. Mary’s, said that Conifer “helps our patients understand and navigate the financial aspects” of their care, including applying for charity care and other financial help. The business has helped more than 25,000 St. Mary’s patients in the past two years, he said.

Fowler’s account “was never classified as a charity care case,” Lieber said. After Bloomberg asked about her situation, the hospital said it will reach out to her “to close out her account and resolve credit reporting issues.”

Other medical providers are in the collections business. HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, has a subsidiary called Parallon that boasts on its website about collecting $41 billion annually. MedNax Inc., a company that provides staffing to hospitals for such services as anesthesiology and neonatal intensive care, purchased a billing and collections company in 2015.

Medical providers got more sophisticated about billing and collections during the 1990s. That’s when insurers, under pressure to contain costs, became more restrictive about what medical services they would pay for. More recently, insurance policies have put more costs on patients. The average deductible for employer-sponsored coverage more than doubled in the past decade, to $1,505 for an individual. That means hospitals are increasingly chasing payments from individuals as well as insurers.

The business of making sure doctors and hospitals get paid—known in industry jargon as revenue-cycle management—is by one estimate a $24 billion market. Along with billing and collections, it includes verifying patients’ insurance, checking whether they’re eligible for government assistance and making sure the services that doctors provide are properly documented and billed.

Collecting payment has become more important as hospitals’ traditional revenue streams come under pressure. Looming cuts to Medicare reimbursements may make as many as 60 percent of U.S. hospitals unprofitable, compared with about 25 percent currently, according to a 2016 Congressional Budget Office analysis.

“The stakes are higher, the dollars are bigger and therefore, they simply can’t afford to not be good at this,” said Jim Lazarus, managing director at Advisory Board Co., a hospital consulting company.

“Does our health care have to decimate us financially?”

Tenet’s practices have drawn backlash from patients and regulators for years. In June 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered (PDF) Conifer to pay $5 million in relief to consumers. The regulator said it failed to send consumers proper documentation and didn’t adequately respond when debts were disputed.

The bureau has recorded 889 consumer complaints about Tenet since 2013, including 358 so far in 2017. Many don’t mention the hospital company directly but refer instead to Central Financial Control or Syndicated Office Systems. Among complaints about medical debt, only two collections agencies were cited more frequently than Tenet. None of Tenet’s for-profit hospital competitors have a similar record of complaints, although some of those companies outsource the work.

When Fowler was unable to meet her obligation, she appealed online to an organization called RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys debt on the secondary market and forgives it. It was founded by two former collections industry executives. The nonprofit identifies people who can’t pay their medical debts and then tries to raise money to buy the delinquent accounts for pennies on the dollar, forgiving the debt. The charity said it hasn’t yet taken up her account.

Fowler said the hospital never discussed charity care with her and that her attempts to set up a payment plan after she was discharged went nowhere.

“They said nothing to me. I just got this giant bill in the mail,” she said. “I’m very grateful that you saved my life. But does our health care have to decimate us financially? It’s destroying me.”

MDC says, COPS ALWAYS GET A FREE PASS TO KILL !!! They threw away the tasers and decided to go with assault rifles on american citizens. The court doesn’t allow the video or the picture of the officers gun that MDC discovered. What kind of cop, places “YOUR FUCKED” on their gun ? When , ya feel your above the law !!

Police body cam footage shows the moment a Mesa, AZ police officer gunned down an unarmed man in a hotel hallway — a shooting where the jury found the officer not guilty of 2nd degree murder.

The 2016 shooting happened in a hotel where police were responding to a report of someone pointing a gun out a window. Philip Brailsford was one of the responding officers, and in this video you see and hear the cops barking out commands to a man, Daniel Shaver, and woman the moment they walk out of their room.

MDC adds, ALL COPS are LOSERS , 20 year pension play, LOESERS !!!! You hide behind a badge, act like both parties are criminals, COPS have turned into a NAZI CLAN .

Significance. The Maccabees successfully rebelled against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. According to the Talmud, a late text, the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day’s lighting. Celebrations. Lighting candles each night.

Hanukkah begins at sundown on , December 12, and ends with nightfall on Wednesday, December 20. The candles are lit for eight consecutive nights starting on December 12 and continuing through December 19.

MDC blesses the people of Alabama because they are so blatantly stupid. Roy Moore should be in prison , but he will be re-elected because the USA has become a sheep led closed eye society.

Yesterday, the New York Times broke the story that a lesser-known Saudi prince and distant relative of Bin Salman, Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed, had been the winning bidder of the Leonardo. “[B]ut he is a proxy” for the crown prince, an unidentified “Saudi art world” source told the WSJ.

Observers had found it strange that a figure like Prince Bader, nearly unknown outside of his home country, would be behind the purchase of the most expensive painting of all time. (Indeed, yesterday artnet News’s Andrew Goldstein and Julia Halperin speculated about the possibility that he was buying Salvator Mundi on behalf of Prince Mohammed.)

The WSJ adds some interesting context on the purchase:

Mohammed bin Salman, known by his initials MBS, was identified as the painting’s buyer in U.S. intelligence reports, according to people with direct knowledge of the information. American officials have closely watched Prince Mohammed’s activities, particularly as he moves to sideline contenders to the throne and has arrested rivals in the Saudi capital.

The blockbuster art acquisition now appears to be a move in a much bigger geopolitical game unfolding across the Middle East. The WSJ report notes that Saudi Arabia’s big auction move may be an effort to win “cultural bragging rights” and focus attention on its own emerging art scene, especially given the decade-long and frequently splashy art buying spree of the Qatari royals.

The WSJ notes that the Abu Dhabi destination may also help explain the Saudi crown prince’s political motives for acquiring it. The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is the capital, has deepened ties with Saudi Arabia amid Prince Mohammed’s ascent to power. The UAE has long tried to establish itself as a cultural hub, with mixed results. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut diplomatic ties with Qatar this past summer after long-simmering tensions.

The ruler of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Bin Zayed has acted as a mentor for Saudi’s Prince Mohammed as he moves forward with his own grand plans for the country.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, also referred to as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day or Pearl Harbor Day, is observed annually in the United States on December 7, to remember and honor the 2,403 citizens of the United States who were killed in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Every year the United States honors the people who were in the war.

In the piece, an adviser tells The Atlantic that President Trump reportedly thinks pets are “low class” and was “embarrassed” when Pence announced in January that he and his family would be moving into the Naval Observatory with their pets — which included, at the time, two cats, a rabbit, and a snake.

“Trump ridiculed the menagerie to his secretary, according to a longtime adviser. ‘He was embarrassed by it; he thought it was so low class,’ says the adviser. ‘He thinks the Pences are yokels,’ ” reads the segment, offending animal lovers across the Internet.

While the article, titled “God’s Plan for Mike Pence,” contains over 1,500 words, the aforementioned three sentences are causing the biggest stir, especially on Twitter, where pet owners are sounding off about the president’s reported feelings on furry friends.

MDC wishes everyone WELL and only CANCER, AIDS, and a STROKE to TRUMP !! F*CK YOU MAN !!

Jerusalem, a Middle Eastern city west of the Dead Sea, has been a place of pilgrimage and worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims since the biblical era. Its Old City has significant religious sites around the Temple Mount compound, including the Western Wall (sacred to Judaism), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (a Christian pilgrimage site) and the Dome of the Rock (a 7th-century Islamic shrine with a gold dome).

President Trump on Monday endorsed embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore on Twitter, offering his most explicit thumbs up yet for the candidate who is accused of preying on teen girls as an adult.

“Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!” he tweeted just after 6 a.m.

He later added: “Putting Pelosi/Schumer Liberal Puppet Jones into office in Alabama would hurt our great Republican Agenda of low on taxes, tough on crime, strong on military and borders…& so much more. Look at your 401-k’s since Election. Highest Stock Market EVER! Jobs are roaring back!”

“I can tell you one thing for sure: We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones,” Trump said several weeks ago.

“He denies it. Look, he denies it,” Trump said of the accusations against Moore. “If you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours. He totally denies it. He says it didn’t happen. And look, you have to look at him also.” MDC says, TRUMP denies it as well.

MDC adds, When a man rapes a woman , they deny it as well in court. THEY ALL LIE !!!

Makers of the world’s first ‘smart condom’ have finally revealed a look at the ‘game-changing’ new device, which boasts the ability to detect STIs, assess performance, and even calculate how many calories you burned during sex.

The $80 i.Con Smart Condom isn’t actually a condom – instead, the photos reveal it’s a ring-shaped wearable that mimics the style of another popular sex toy to sit at the base of the penis.

While there are potential benefits, the smartphone-connected device has sparked concerns that it could be used to spy on a person’s intimate moments.

The i.Con can be used in conjunction with a real condom.

According to British Condoms, it’s lightweight and water resistant – and, with a nano-chip and Bluetooth capabilities built in, it can provide a range of statistics to help improve the wearer’s sex life.

According to the site, the ring will answer questions such as:

What’s my thrust velocity?

How fast are my thrusts?

How many calories did that sesh just burn?

How many times did I just have sex?

What’s the average skin temperature of my… eggplant?

What’s my girth?

How many different positions did I just conquer?

The device also records the amount of calories burned, different positions, and can detect chlamydia and syphilis.

All information will be kept anonymous – but users ‘will have the option to share their recent data with friends, or, indeed the world.’

While the divide between cat and dog owners isn’t as bad in real life as in theory, here’s a bit of news that’s bound to get the former a little rattled.

New research from Uppsala University in Sweden – the results of which were published in Nature – has shown that dog owners live longer and are also at a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Data taken from more than 3 million individuals aged between 40 and 80 was used to investigate whether dog owners had higher or lower mortality rates than non-dog owners.

Remarkably, owners with no other love in their life apart from their canine companion showed a marked advantage. Those with dogs clocked a 33 percent reduction in risk of death and an 11 percent reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease when compared to single non-dog owners.

In a press release accompanying the results, Mwenya Mubanga, the study’s lead author wrote: “A very interesting finding in our study was that dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death than those living in a multi-person household.

“Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households.”

The study also suggested that larger dogs are more beneficial to their owner’s health than smaller breeds. Which makes sense, because they’re much better than smaller dogs.

According to the data, owners of larger dogs that were originally bred for hunting purposes, were more protected from disease. The study doesn’t indicate what aspect of dog ownership improves human health, but scientists are speculating it’s got something to do with walking them.

So basically, having a dog makes you less lazy. According to Tove Fal, another study author, anyway.

“We know that dog owners, in general, have a higher level of physical activity,” she said, “which could be one explanation for the observed results. Other explanations include an increased well-being and social contacts or effects of the dog on the bacterial microbiome in the owner.”

“The color of the sky right now, bright and sunny, lowers heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and releases dopamine in the brain,” says Kelley Hopkins-Alvarez, a licensed professional counselor, and board-certified coach.

A study published in the Journal of Management Decision supports colors and psychology being directly correlated, as well. “Managers can use colors to increase or decrease appetite, enhance mood, calm down customers, and, reduce the perception of waiting time, among others,” note the study findings.

Having a dog can bring a lot of love into your life. It could also make it last a little longer.

A group of academics from Uppsala University in Sweden analyzed the health records of 3.4 million people in that northern European country, where databases contain detailed information on everyone’s hospitalizations, medical history and even whether they own a dog. Such detailed records made it relatively easy to suss out the impact of having a canine companion.

People in possession of a pooch were less likely to have cardiovascular disease or die from any cause during the 12 years covered by the research, according to the study published in Scientific Reports. The impact was greatest for single people, said Mwenya Mubanga, an author of the paper from the university’s Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Laboratory.

“Dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death,” Mubanga said. “Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households.”

You wouldn’t expect Burger King to come out with the most fire PSA of the year, but we guess that’s 2017 for you. For its latest ad, the fast food chain decided to take on bullying by testing its customers to see who would defend a High School Junior being teased — and who would defend a “bullied” Whopper Jr burger.

Depressingly, but unsurprisingly, 95 percent of customers reported their damaged burger, while only 12 percent came to the high school junior’s aid.

Watch the clip above, but be prepared, the bullying scenes might bring back some bad High School memories.

The company that makes Cards Against Humanity is trying to prevent President Trump’s proposed border wall from being built by purchasing a plot of vacant land along the country’s border.

“Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a twenty-billion dollar wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing,” a statement said on the website Cards Against Humanity Saves America.

“So we’ve purchased a plot of vacant land on the border and retained a law firm specializing in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get builtThe effort is part of a holiday promotion that encourages the game’s users to send in $15 in exchange for “six America-saving surprises.”

The promotion, which is now sold out, promises to send Cards Against Humanity Saves America recipients an “illustrated map of the land” and “a certificate of our promise to fight the wall,” among other “surprises.”

The company says it is trying to save America from “injustice, lies, racism, the whole enchilada.”

In a video posted on the website, a narrator said the country “seemed to be hanging from a thread” after Trump’s election

“But then, the small card game company from Chicago, Illinois, known as Cards Against Humanity, launched a bold campaign to save America,” the narrator said.

“These scrappy comedy writers would come to be hailed as saviors by the American people. They stopped Trump’s border wall.”

Trump made building a wall along the country’s southern border one of his key promises during his presidential campaign.

Last month, The Associated Press reported that eight prototypes for Trump’s proposed border wall would soon undergo tests to determine how well they stand up to breach attempts.

The mass weekend arrests by Saudi Arabia could be due to both the stated purpose of cracking down on corruption and a power grab by the kingdom’s young, reform-minded crown prince who may soon take the throne, said Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to the kingdom.

On Saturday, 11 princes, including well-known billionaire investor Alwaleed bin Talal, and four ministers, including the one in charge of the National Guard, were arrested, according to various reports, along with a number of former ministers.

MDC says, Saudi Arabia’s arrest of Prince Alwaleed ‘would be like arresting Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates’ in the United States. Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding has major stakes in Fox, Time Warner, Citigroup, Twitter, Apple, Motorola and many other well-known companies, as well as several satellite television networks that are prominent in the Arab world.

We would also like to add that our Duffus POTUS commented in tweets Monday evening, President Trump appeared to endorse Saudi Arabian King Salman’s decision to remove a prince who headed the National Guard and create a new “anti-corruption” committee on Saturday.

“I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing….” the president tweeted.

He completed the statement with a second tweet.

“….Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years!” he wrote. MDC would like to add, Trump acts like a dictator and basically endorsed a dictator’s executive decision move.

The arrests happened hours after King Salman created an anti-corruption committee chaired by his 32-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. MBS, as the crown prince is known, could become king later this year or in early 2018 when his 81-year-old father abdicates the throne.

At 11pm on Saturday, guests at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh got a rude awakening. Businesspeople and consultants who were staying in one of Riyadh’s most opulent digs, along with diners and visitors, were all told to assemble in the lobby with their bags. No one knew why.

As guests made their way to buses to be taken to other hotels in the Saudi capital, senior officials were making plans for new arrivals who weren’t prepared for a night away from home, let alone a spell in a five-star hotel. They were soon to become the highest-profile prisoners in the modern kingdom’s history. And the most pampered.

From midnight, buses arrived in the sprawling complex disgorging princes, business leaders, other royals, their guards and their captors. The arrivals marked the start of an extraordinary episode that exposed the kingdom’s elite to rare public scrutiny and showed that, even when accused of high crime, the powerful maintain privileges.

By dawn on Sunday, more than 30 of Saudi Arabia’s most senior figures, among them blood relatives of senior rulers, were locked inside the hotel, accused of corruption. Their ignominious arrests were the talk of the country, and so too was the fact that they were far from a prison cell, where most citizens facing similar charges could expect to find themselves.

A trove of 13.4 million records exposes ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary, the secret dealings of the chief fundraiser for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the offshore interests of the queen of England and more than 120 politicians around the world.

MDC says, Wilbur Ross is next. We would love to see Trump’s family also busted, but politics and finance will fuck with that .

The leaked documents, dubbed the Paradise Papers, show how deeply the offshore financial system is entangled with the overlapping worlds of political players, private wealth and corporate giants, including Apple, Nike, Uber and other global companies that avoid taxes through increasingly imaginative bookkeeping maneuvers.

One offshore web leads to Trump’s commerce secretary, private equity tycoon Wilbur Ross, who has a stake in a shipping company that has received more than $68 million in revenue since 2014 from a Russian energy company co-owned by the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The new files come from two offshore services firms as well as from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in jurisdictions that serve as waystations in the global shadow economy. The leaks were obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries.

The promise of tax havens is secrecy – offshore locales create and oversee companies that often are difficult, or impossible, to trace back to their owners. While having an offshore entity is often legal, the built-in secrecy attracts money launderers, drug traffickers, kleptocrats and others who want to operate in the shadows. Offshore companies, often “shells” with no employees or office space, are also used in complex tax-avoidance structures that drain billions from national treasuries.

The offshore industry makes “the poor poorer” and is “deepening wealth inequality,” said Brooke Harrington, a certified wealth manager and Copenhagen Business School professor who is the author of ‘Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent.’

“There is this small group of people who are not equally subject to the laws as the rest of us, and that’s on purpose,” Harrington said. These people “live the dream” of enjoying “the benefits of society without being subject to any of its constraints.”

The records expand on the revelations from the leak of offshore documents that spawned the 2016 Panama Papers investigation by ICIJ and its media partners. The new files shine a light on a different cast of underexplored island havens, including some with cleaner reputations and higher price tags, such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

I know most of you have been baffled when you see a horse switch surfaces. There are many that thinks surfaces are interchangeable and a fast horse on one surface will transfer it to another with little or no problem. History will tell you a different story, though. Sure, there are a few horses that made the switch without any noticeable problem, but these types of horses are some of the rarest in the breed.

Years ago, trainers in America would have to break a horse’s maiden on the dirt before he could be switched to the grass. This is where the main misunderstanding comes from. Back in the 1980’s, tracks in North America rarely carded any maiden races on turf to benefit horses that is bred to excel on the grass. As the popularity of grass racing increased in North America, more track got on board with the idea of carding grass maidens. Before then, it was common a grass horse would languish on dirt for quite a few starts before finally breaking through.

Grass is a more slippery surface than dirt and harder too when dried. But it is also easier on a horse’s feet and leg because of the cushion underneath their feet. But it is also a much faster surface and speed horses tends to run faster than what their conditions allows them to. On dirt, a horse’s feet sinks in the dirt causing them to work harder to maintain that same speed and it usually tires them out quicker. The exception to this theory is dirt tracks that has very little cushion which helps horses run a faster pace but often leads to many injuries, many the public never hears about. On plastic or synthetics surfaces, this surfaces acts more like grass than it does dirt because horses feet does not bog down in plastics or synthetics like they do on dirt. And synthetics is not as slippery as grass, even when it is wet, but it is as easy on a horse’s feet and legs as grass. There are many experts who feels the surfaces do not matter, much like breeding. But after many years of speaking with ordinary handicappers, like me, I have slowly learned that surface changes can make all the difference in the world. Most handicappers I spoke with often excel in picking winners on one surface or another, but rarely both.

The next question is how can one tell which horse will most likely excel on one surface over the other. While there are quite a few answers, it all begins with breeding. Since the thoroughbred breed was developed originally in Europe, a lot of horses will tend to favor the grass more than dirt. But American dirt breed was started mostly from Europe’s grass horses and developed more for dirt by adding known dirt horses through each generation over a period of 70-80 years. Some were a natural fit(average horses on grass) but more were through many generations of development. Actually, North America did not even run horses on grass much at all until the late 1910s and early 1920’s, when their breed became saturated with turf breeding.

Eventually, American breeders took horse that could only sprint a short distance and developed the quarter horse breeding. The easiest way to spot a horse that will enjoy quarter horse racing is almost all have thick chest muscles. Horses can build speed quicker if they are more muscle bound in the chest area(often almost twice as big as their hind). Even horses that are better proportion throughout their whole body will have a hard time keeping up. However, it starts evening out around 400-450 yards.

The best way to spot horses that will prefer turf over dirt is their hooves. The bigger and wider their hooves are, the more likely they will enjoy grass over horses with small or thin hooves. The reason is horses with larger hooves tend to be more confident in their strides because they can plant their hooves with less probability of slipping and/or sliding. Also, horses that are taller will tend to like turf more than dirt simply because they carry more body weight than average and dirt tends to cause them to “bog” down more, unless they are nimble on their feet(rare at best).

For dirt, horses that are evenly built tends to fare the best. 15 to 16 hands is ideal height for most dirt runners, as most are nimble enough to build speed and will use their hind legs to keep their speed up. For distance horses, their hind quarters will often be the deciding factor as these are the feet horses pushes off with, unless they are tired. The fuller a horse’s body and the flatter his back is, the more likely he will keep running long after others have tired.

While I, in no way, consider myself an expert but have learned from many mistakes that I have made through the years. I continued to make mistakes even today but I am a much better and more confident handicapper than when I first started. I used to second guess myself after the fact years ago but now I bet exactly what I feel and second guessing has been gone for years. I also feel if you check out everything I mentioned, it will make you a better handicapper and eventually lead you to some monster payoffs. Wish the best of luck to everyone!!

Two major studies showed that mankind has more empathy for pooches in dire circumstances than suffering people, according to a report in the Times of London.
A UK medical research charity staged two phony donation campaigns – one with a dog and the other featuring a man. Of course, the pooch drew more contributions.
“Would you give pounds 5 to save Harrison from a slow, painful death?” the separate ads said, featuring a canine and human “Harrison.”

Then a Northeastern University study showed that only a baby human could compete with man’s best friend.
Students were showed fake newspaper clippings about a baseball-bat attack on a puppy, an adult dog, a year-old infant and 30-year-old adult. They were asked questions to gauge their empathy and the adult finished last in sympathy.
“Respondents were significantly less distressed when adult humans were victimized, in comparison with human babies, puppies and adult dogs,” according to Northeastern researchers. “Only relative to the infant victim did the adult dog receive lower scores of empathy.

MDC says, The Most Marketed Drugs Have The Least Therapeutic Value !!!

The pharmaceutical industry spends a lot of money on getting doctors and patients to buy their products. Americans are probably most familiar with those TV and radio commercials that end with the long list of side effects narrated in super-speed, but may not realize that their doctors are getting their own special brand of marketing, too. If that sounds suspect, it should. Two studies from the U.S. and Canada show that the drugs that pharma companies spend the most time promoting to doctors have the leasttherapeutic value.

All The Better To Sell You With, My Dear

Here’s something that might feel a little weird: your doctor has probably gone to lunch with a pharmaceutical industry representative, and the rep probably picked up the check. Some hospitals and medical programs forbid the practice, but for those that don’t, doctors routinely receive free meals, drinks, and small gifts from pharma reps hoping to increase their sales. Companies in the U.S. are required to report every payment to doctors of $10 or more. According to Open Payments, the online database of those reports, pharmaceutical companies spent $8.2 billion in 2016 promoting drugs to more than half a million physicians. (You can use the tool yourselfto see what your own doctor has been paid.)

And this kind of promotion works. Studies show that doctors who are allowed to accept these gifts are more likely to prescribe brand-name drugs, even when cheaper generics are available. That’s why two studies, an American one published in the British Medical Journal in May 2017 and a Canadian one published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in September 2017, are so troubling. They found that the most-promoted drugs were the least likely to be therapeutically valuable — or, as the BMJ study defined it, “effective, safe, affordable, novel, and represent a genuine advance in treating a disease.”

What kinds of drugs are we talking? In the U.S., the top three most heavily promoted drugs were Eliquis, an anticoagulant that can reduce stroke risk in some patients, and Bydureon and Invokana, two drugs for type II diabetes that are formulated to lower blood sugar. Invokana was also among Canada’s most promoted drugs, along with the blood-pressure drug Coversyl and the asthma/COPD medication Breo Ellipta. All of them were rated as having little therapeutic value, and not representing anything new in the pharmaceutical market.

The Greater Good

Of course, this does make sense. A revolutionary, must-have drug sells itself. “If a genuinely innovative drug becomes available that significantly advances patient care … this information might be expected to spread rapidly among clinicians,” the authors of the BMJ study write. “Conversely, a ‘me-too’ drug with minimal benefit over previous treatments in a class with generic alternatives … might need robust promotion to facilitate its use.”

This doesn’t suggest that the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical reps is a sign of corruption. After all, many drugs are useful, and doctors don’t necessarily have time to constantly research every new drug out there. As a 2017 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association pointed out, “In the United States, there is no formal approach to educating physicians about new drugs. In the absence of such a system, physicians must either find information about new therapies from other sources, such as by reading or attending meetings, or accept information from pharmaceutical representatives.”

It does mean, however, that patients should be vigilant and educated about their own care. Research what pharmaceutical companies your doctor and doctor’s office have had contact with. When your doctor prescribes a drug, ask if there are effective generic alternatives. The more information you have, the better off you’ll be.

The Yankees have gone nearly 60 years without winning a World Series under a Republican president.

The ‘curse’ coincides with former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner getting in trouble for making illegal campaign contributions to President Richard Nixon.

The Yankees have won nine World Series under Democratic presidents during that same GOP losing streak.

The New York Yankees’ loss to the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last week guaranteed that a nearly 60-year-long losing streak would continue.

The Yankees, the team that holds the most championships among the major US professional sports franchises, hasn’t won a title under a Republican president since President Dwight Eisenhower was in office in 1958.

During that time, the Yankees won nine championships under Democratic administrations, going 9-2 in World Series they have participated in. The Bronx Bombers have made five World Series appearances during Republican administrations since their last title win in such circumstances, losing each time.

Eric Columbus, a former official in President Barack Obama’s administration, brought the point up on Twitter on Monday. Columbus pointed to former Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner’s 1974 guilty plea for providing illegal campaign contributions to former President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign in 1972 as the true starting point of this “curse.”

“He avoided jail time, but was suspended from baseball for fifteen months,” Columbus tweeted. “And a curse was born.”

MDC says, Can you only imagine you’re good friends with Jeff Bezos, and you had a great day, and you can’t wait to tell him about it. So you email Jeff Bezos at Amazon to share the details, and then you ask him, politely: “Enough about me Jeff, how was your day?”

Jeff doesn’t want to upstage you-;but he can’t help it, if he’s being truthful:

“Not bad,” he’ll say. “I made more than $6 billion in five minutes.”

This is no joke. Amazon’s stock jumped 7.1 percent yesterday afternoon, on the news of its amazing third quarter earnings report.

At 4 p.m., as the market closed, it was trading at $972 a share; five minutes later in after hours trading, it popped to $1,041.15. And since Bezos still owns about 17 percent of Amazon’s common stock, if you do the math-;boom, $6.24 billion.

That puts Bezos’s total net worth at about $83.5 billion, and should return him to the top spot on the list of the world’s richest people .

He wasn’t the only master of the universe to see a giant leap Thursday. Larry Page and Sergei Brin picked up $1.2 billion and $1.15 billion each, after Alphabet’s stock surged on an earnings report. And Bill Gates is worth an extra $340 million based on Microsoft’s jump.

In closing; MDC states that Jeff Bezos of Amazon made as much in 5 minutes ,than Donald Trump claims he’s worth.

JFK Assassination Records – 2017 Additional Documents Release

The National Archives and Records Administration is releasing documents previously withheld in accordance with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act. The vast majority of the Collection (88%) has been open in full and released to the public since the late 1990s. The records at issue are documents previously identified as assassination records, but withheld in full or withheld in part. Learn more

This July release consists of 3,810 documents, including 441 formerly withheld-in-full documents and 3,369 documents formerly released with portions redacted. The documents originate from FBI and CIA series identified by the Assassination Records Review Board as assassination records. More releases will follow.

MDC says, THE USA IS SO FUCKED …. LETS RAPE THIS BITCH OF ALL THE FUNDS ….as per TRUMP !!!

A tiny, 2-year-old energy company from a small town in Montana won a $300 million contract to fix Puerto Rico’s hurricane-ravaged power grid, raising concerns about the decision-making behind the lucrative deal and the company’s ties to people connected to the Trump administration, as well as the company’s ability to fully meet Puerto Rico’s recovery needs.

Whitefish Energy, which at the time of the Hurricane Maria’s landfall had only two full-time employees, now has by far the largest contract of any company involved in Puerto Rico’s recovery, and, according to reporting from the Daily Beast, is primarily financed by a firm run by a major Trump donor who has connections to several members of his administration.

The contract has also raised eyebrows because the company is based in Whitefish, Montana, the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (population: 7,436). Zinke’s office told the Washington Post that Zinke knows the company’s CEO because the town is a place where “everybody knows everybody” but that Zinke had no role in the deal. A member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, Luis Vega Ramos, told the Daily Beast that connections to Zinke and Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló were Whitefish’s “most important expertise and assets.” Vega Ramos accused Whitefish of being a “glorified middleman” that crafted a “cozy sweetheart deal” to make money off subcontracting.

Whitefish Energy, which says it now has 280 workers in Puerto Rico and is growing by 10 to 20 subcontractors a day, has taken on the Herculean task of restoring power to an island where the vast majority of citizens are still without electricity more than a month after the hurricane. The cash-strapped territory will spend $490 million on the initial phase of the power grid repairs, according to Rosselló.

The $300 million Whitefish contract sets hourly rates at $330 for site supervisors and $227 for journeyman linemen, with rates even higher for subcontractors: $462 per hour for supervisors and $319 for linemen. It also includes $332 nightly fees for each worker and $80 a day for food. MDC says, QUIT your mundane utility job here in the USA and go to Puerto Rico and hang out and create delays and get paid.

One tumultuous month after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico and the majority of the island is still without power, leaving thousands looking for a way out instead of getting ready to rebuild.

For pet lovers looking to flee the island, the decision to move elsewhere is made even harder: Due to federal restrictions and airline regulations, many Puerto Ricans leaving the country are not allowed to bring their pets with them, forcing these residents to leave their beloved dogs behind or not leave at all.

According to The Daily Beast, many of the airlines flying out of Puerto Rico are prohibiting passengers from bringing their pets on board because federal authorities are using the limited cargo space of planes to transport supplies. On top that, federal restrictions say that pets weighing more than 20 lbs. are not allowed to travel in the cabin, leaving all but small animals out of luck.

Pet Friendly Puerto Rico president Sylvia Bedrosian told The Daily Beast that these restrictions have led to the abandonment of 2,000 animals. Bedrosian also commented on how these current blocks on pets violate the No Pet Left Behind FEMA Act, put in place following Hurricane Katrina, which is supposed to ensure that pets are figured in to all federal emergency plans.

Right now residents with pets are depending on airlines to be flexible with their policies. Both JetBlue and Southwest have adjusted their pet policies to allow more animals on board, but the airlines still have to adhere to the 20-lb. in-cabin pet limit. United PetSafe, a pet transport business that flies animals from San Juan to the mainland, is limited by the same embargo. A United Airlines employee said the embargo was recently waived for them until Oct. 31, but gave no reason why it wasn’t lifted for other airlines.

“I understand that most planes coming from the U.S. to Puerto Rico are filled with goods, but what bothers me most is that planes leaving the island are mostly empty. Why take custody of an empty cargo?” Bedrosian told The Daily Beast.

Amid this frustrating confusion, animal rescue groups across North America are doing their best to save as many pets as possible, chartering private planes to retrieve animals from Puerto Rico and bring them to the contiguous United States to reunite with their owners or find a forever home.

October 29th, 2017:
Skid Robot + INDECLINE are joining forces on a humanitarian art project benefiting the homeless men, women and children of Skid Row, Los Angeles.
Starting today and running until 10/26, everything at www.thisisindecline.com will be 15% off.

Promo Code: indy666. Link to website provided above.

Proceeds will go towards toiletries and other necessities for the homeless community. To donate directly through PayPal, please send contributions to: info@thisisindecline.com

You can also donate directly by visiting www.skid-robot.com and purchasing prints and merch. All proceeds will go towards the project.
This Halloween, love thy neighbor, because you never know when it might be thy-self. Our house has been haunted by the lies of our prosperity gospel for long enough. #indecline

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday cemented California’s status as the leading state on animal welfare by signing into law AB 485, a bill that makes California the first state to ban the sale of puppies, kittens, and rabbits in pet stores, unless shelters or qualified rescue organizations supply the animals. Pet stores will have one year to transition to a more humane model by choosing to sell only pet supplies and small animals, or begin working with qualified nonprofits to place homeless animals into new homes. The HSUS and a large coalition of groups backed the bill, which was sponsored by Social Compassion in Legislation.Under the new legislation, all dogs, cats, and rabbits sold in pet stores must come from animal shelters or non-profit rescue organizations by 2019.

Any pet store owner who does not comply will be fined $500 for each animal in violation of the law.

MDC calls this law AB 485 “BULLSHIT” , blocks all of California’s pet lovers from having access to professional, licensed, and ethical commercial breeders, This is not good for Californians or their companion animals.”

Total BS. There are no restrictions on prospective pet owners going directly to breeders. They’ll probably spend the same amount of money at a breeder that they’d spend in a pet store, only they’re more likely to get a well-bred, healthy animal rather than a “product” from a mill. And anyone who wants a purebred can also contact breed rescues. I see nothing but win here – except for those who want to keep those awful animal mills operating.

The law will work to reduce the mass-breeding of pets in “puppy mills” and “kitten factories,” where they often face abuse and unhealthy living conditions, supporter said.

“This is a big win for our four-legged friends, of course,” Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, who wrote the bill, said. “But also for California taxpayers who spend more than $250 million annually to house and euthanize animals in our shelters.

“I am very grateful for the strong support we received from animal-lovers across the state and from Social Compassion in Legislation, the bill’s sponsor,” he said.

The bill had faced criticism from the American Kennel Club and California Retailers Association.

“AB 485 blocks all of California’s pet lovers from having access to professional, licensed, and ethical commercial breeders,” Sheila Goffe, vice president of government relations for the American Kennel Club, told the LA Times. “This is not good for Californians or their companion animals.”

What you should do if you come from a family that never has anything supportive to say, doesn’t show you love, doesn’t value you, doesn’t appreciate you and is constantly trying to put you down and sabotage your success.

Breaking up with a friend, boyfriend or girlfriend is one thing and there’s a lot of advice out there for doing it, but what about a family break-up?

Most of us are not in a position to “just leave” nor do we feel we want to, or that it’s the right thing to do. So what do we do when a toxic family member (or members) is literally ruining our lives? How do we deal with the feeling of obligation, guilt, confusion and heartache?

It is important to note that not everyone’s family is there for them to lean on, to call on or to go home to. Not every family is built on the premise of interconnectedness, support and stability. Sometimes family simply means that you share a bloodline. That’s all. Some families build you up and some suck your energy dry.

In many respects, the way we were treated by our family ends up being the same treatment we offer the world.

Often times the signal and energy we put out into the world is similar to or exactly what we have experienced by others. And for most of us, this influential force has been our family. Think about it. Think about just how much the interaction, or lack there of, from our family, sets the tone for the quality of energy we give off during our lifetime.

More than 250 NFL players controversially knelt during the national anthem as a nod to peaceful protests for racial equality that Colin Kaepernick began last year. The protests were reignited after Trump’s rhetoric at an Alabama rally in September, when he used profanity to describe protesting players and called for their firing.

Bryant also answered a question about what he would say to President Donald Trump, saying he’d tell him to “focus on serving, not leading.”

MDC cracks up because , Congress is getting involved? Athletes will be told like paid bitches as the police force in the united states (lowercase used, because states are not united and powerful anymore) . The South Park creators remind us that, We can Sit- Stand- Knell – or put your Weiners out !!

In preseason games, the Lakers have decided to lock arms during the national anthem as a compromise to not offend the military while also shedding light on injustice in the country.

Coach Luke Walton, a former teammate of Bryant’s, said last week: “I think (the players) chose to show that we are united in this and that obviously, they have a ton of respect … well, I will let them speak for themselves, but I have a ton of respect for the country, the flag, the military. But by locking arms, I feel like we are showing that there are issues in this country, and it is a chance for us to raise awareness and still make it a talking point. If you do nothing, then it kind of goes away, and if it goes away, then nothing changes.

“… It is important for me, for the players and for our country to continue to talk and be active and get out in the community and do things that makes this country better and equal for opportunities and for everybody that lives here. I think that is why the players and team decided to do that.”

MDC says, “Hey Donald, you stated how there is so much WORK TO DO; who has time for golf , like Obama? MDC states, ” Mr. Trump ….. YOU ARE FULL OF SHIT. ”

Donald Trump made a Saturday visit to his Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., in Ashburn, Va., on Oct. 14 to play golf. The visit marked the 72nd time the 45th President has visited one of his 17 golf clubs (and, for most of them, presumably played some golf) since becoming President on Jan. 20, 2017.

According to pool reports, Trump arrived to the club around 11 a.m. He played golf again with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who played golf with Trump on Columbus Day when the president called in staff from a planned day off to keep the facility open to his satisfaction.

Trump carries a 2.8 USGA handicap index, but he hasn’t entered a score since June 2016.

The Trump Administration, per policy, does not acknowledge that Trump is playing even a hole of golf, much less an 18-hole round. However, if he’s going to the golf club for about 4-5 hours, you can be pretty sure he’s playing golf. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has asked the White House to provide the names of Trump’s golf partners, as well for his clubs to provide visitor logs to get a sense of when Trump has played golf and with whom.

The President is certainly entitled to some leisure time, and golf has been an outlet for most Commanders-in-Chief dating back to the early 20th century. However, the reluctance to even acknowledge that this President plays golf conflicts with his almost relentless criticism of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who played an estimated 333 rounds of golf as President.

FREEDOM FROM FEAR
Las Vegas, Nevada, the scene of an angry male, who took his misery, and sprayed it all over.

The bare facts: His father was on the most wanted list of the FBI.

Results, a son who saw himself as his father’s son, and making sure the sins of the son were greater.

Children whose parents have some stigma, that community and culture exploit, create emotional traumas and shadow behaviors unrecognized, until they come out.

We have seen the result of a President Bush, in some moment of saving face, go to war to finish a job his President father left in the son’s mind, incomplete.

It’s inherent in the human species to seek one’s history.

Humanity never had the time to explore these deep behaviors traceable through generations, and centuries, until now.

And the American situation is, we have a President who might just be trying to obliterate the sins of his father, and maybe his mother’s and family members. The hatred that the father created, still exists. The shadow runs deep. This psychological shadow needs the light of day.

Locking him up, or putting him out of the office, are in play.

The American shadow began when the first Spaniards landed. That shadow of superiority must be nipped in the bud. The inquisition still separates the indigenous from the Lords of the church. Healing has begun in some South American countries.

Today we have the time and the need to go inward. We don’t want to repeat those past histories that created the shadows we are still suffering from today.

MDC wants to highlight the sweet Russian President Vladimir Putin, a dog lover, received a top breed puppy as a belated birthday gift on Wednesday from Turkmenistan’s president who is keen to recover lost Russian markets for Turkmen gas. Let’s remember, the United States President doesn’t own any animals or pets; actually does his horrid family quantify as animals ?

“We have a common friend – this is the world’s unique alabai dog. And today I brought this little alabai with me,” President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said before talks with Putin, pulling the pup out from a portable cage and holding it up by the scruff of its neck.

Putin, who marked his 65th birthday on Oct. 7, took the puppy, called Verny which means “faithful” in Russian, and kissed it in its forehead.

The alabai is a home-bred Turkmen variety of the Central Asian shepherd dog. Along with the handmade carpets and the ancient Akhal Teke breed of race horses, it is officially listed as part of Turkmenistan’s national heritage.

We just wanted to reverse the clock on you to 1993. This was the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. A truck bomb was the plan to bring the World Trade Center down back than.

The state’s top court in Albany, New York yesterday found the Port Authority is entitled to government immunity from negligence claims for failing to deter the 1993 bombing that killed 6 and injured 1000. WHAT THE FU*K !!

So, does this open some eyes to the conspiracy of 9-11 ? The Port Authority receives government immunity!!! WOW, our prayers are with those families that fought these issues in court for so many years. It feels wonderful to have the government step on you too after the loss.

Every time a military tragedy occurs, a politician will inevitably rush to blame it on the “gutted” Pentagon budget. After 15 Marines were seriously injured when an Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) burst into flames on September 13, it was only a matter of time before someone attempted to capitalize on the tragedy by screaming for more defense dollars.

For those keeping score, it took less than 48 hours for Representative Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to issue a press statement linking the incident to other “accidents related to readiness challenges.”

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio sat down with Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget to discuss his book “Principles: Life and Work.” Here Dalio explains the importance of learning from his mistakes.

“Principles: Life and Work” is the first of two planned books, and includes a short autobiography along with an expanded version of the “Principles” that all Bridgewater employees read when joining the company. Following is a transcript of the video.

Henry Blodget: And one of the other principles that you stress is this idea that you should teach your team to fish rather than giving them fish, but you gotta give ’em room to make mistakes. This is something that Jeff Bezos and many other incredibly innovate entrepreneurs have stressed again and again. We have to get over the fear of mistakes. This seems to be a key part.

Dalio: Well, you learn from mistakes and learn from pain. Like I say, you can scratch the car, but you can’t total the car. Okay. Mistakes is one of the best sources of learning, right. Successes mean you do the same thing over again, and okay, that’s fine, but mistakes that are painful stick. When I look back on my career, I think that the mistakes were the best thing that happened to me.

I remember my mistakes better than I remember my successes. Somehow there must be more of the successes to get me where I am, but I remember all the mistakes, and I remember the lessons. So that’s what I mean by pain plus reflection equals progress. So yeah, it’s okay for you to make mistakes. It’s not okay for you to not learn from those mistakes. That’s a principle in there, right. And so you have a culture that operates this way.

If you don’t have a culture that operates this way, it’s not gonna be self-reinforcing. And so the reason I’m talking about these types of principles rather than my economic and investment principles, which’ll come out in the next book is because these are the most fundamental principles, which are the basis of success. And they’re not just in investment, investment firms principles. It’s not just a hedge funds principles. It’s like life principles and how we’re gonna deal effectively with each other.

MDC says, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Whether you or a loved one are worried about developing breast cancer, have just been diagnosed, are going through breast cancer treatment, or are trying to stay well after treatment, this detailed information can help you find the answers you need.

Some major American companies are subtly sending religious messages to customers — even if most people don’t notice.

Brands like Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby have alienated some customers as executives’ religious views have influenced business decisions at certain points in time.

However, other companies’ religious beliefs are less obvious — even though they’re right under customers’ noses. These brands hide Bible verses and other religious content in plain sight.

Some religious customers see these hidden messages as a reason to celebrate, and they double down on their support of brands like In-N-Out and Forever 21. However, others feel that using religious language on packaging is offensive evangelizing to customers of different beliefs.

Here are four companies that many customers may not realize are using their business to share religious messages.

Every Forever 21 shopping bag has the words “John 3:16” on the bottom. The verse, one of the best-known in the Bible, reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“It shows us how much God loves us,” Forever 21 founder Do Won Chang told CNN in 2012. “The love he gave us, by giving us his only son, Jesus, was so unbelievable to me. I hoped others would learn of God’s love. So that’s why I put it there.”

The beloved West Coast burger chain stealthily puts Bible verses on much of its packaging. The wrapper on the famous “Double-Double” for example, lists Nahum 1:7 — “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him” — according to Snopes.

Trijicon, which makes optical sighting equipment for firearms, encountered controversy in 2010 when ABC News discovered the company was putting coded references to Bible verses on its products.

While Whataburger doesn’t put Bible verses on packaging, most locations of the fast-food chain have signs that read “one nation under God.” The phrase is a clear reference to the Pledge of Allegiance (“under God” was added to the pledge in 1954 as an an anti-Communist effort).

Positioning Whataburger “under God” makes some customers even more loyal to the chain, which has a cult following in Texas and parts of the South.

The EB–5 visa, employment-based fifth preference category or EB–5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program, created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990, provides a method for eligible Immigrant Investors to become lawful permanent residents — informally known as “green card” holders — by investing at least $1,000,000 toThe Trump administration is reportedly challenging a record number of H-1B visa applications for high-skilled workers, a sign that the White House is cracking down on legal immigration.

Reuters reported Wednesday that the U.S. has issued more than 85,000 visa challenges to H-1B visa applicants this year, which is a 45 percent increase from the same period last year. The total number of H-1B requests in 2017 has risen by just 3 percent from 2016.

H-1B visas allow high-skilled foreign workers to temporarily fill highly specialized jobs in the U.S. that would otherwise go unfilled, usually in the technology, education or health care fields. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google were some of the top users of this three-year visa program last year, according to the report.

One immigration attorney representing a Massachusetts health care system told Reuters that the Trump administration is doing everything it can to close loopholes in the H-1B program.

“They’re doing anything they can to delay the processing and adjudications and in their mind close any perceived loopholes,” Anthony Pawelski said.The move follows an announcement by the Trump administration in April that it was investigating “fraud and abuse” of the H-1B visa program by American companies.

“The H-1B visa program should help U.S. companies recruit highly-skilled foreign nationals when there is a shortage of qualified workers in the country. Yet, too many American workers who are as qualified, willing, and deserving to work in these fields have been ignored or unfairly disadvantaged,” the Department of Homeland Security said in April.

“Protecting American workers by combating fraud in our employment-based immigration programs is a priority.”

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, is giving up his Secret Service protection, according to a person familiar with the matter.

MDC says, GOOD FOR YOU .The person, speaking under condition of anonymity, was not authorized to comment publicly.

The Secret Service said in a statement that “to ensure the safety and security of our protectees and their families we will not confirm who is currently receiving Secret Service protection.”

TheNew York Times reported Monday night that Trump Jr. is declining the protection so he can have more “privacy.”

Yet Trump Jr.’s decision to forgo protection could be a big cost-savings for the agency already strained by President Trump’s frequent travels and large family.

As USA TODAY first reported in August, the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents it needs for an expanded protective mission under Trump, who has spent almost every weekend traveling to properties he owns on the East Coast.

Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said last month that more than 1,000 agents have already hit federally mandated caps on annual salary and overtime allowances meant to last the entire year. Congress would need to intervene to get these agents paid.

In an interview, Alles acknowledged the president’s large, 18-member family but added that there was “no flexibility” in the service’s mandated protective responsibility. “I can’t change that,” he said.

Trump can’t pay for his own Secret Service protection because it could raise legal issues under the Anti-Deficiency Act. Yet Trump’s immediate family is allowed, under the law, to decline Secret Service protection or find other options, such as private security.

As Trump Organization executives, Trump’s children – both Donald Jr. and his brother Eric Trump – take frequent trips to promote Trump-branded properties across the globe, from their home base in New York to places as far-flung as the United Kingdom and Dubai. Eric’s business trip to Uruguay earlier this year cost the Secret Service nearly $100,000 just for hotel rooms, as one example.

Under Trump, the service is protecting an unprecedented 42 officials, up from 31 during the Obama administration.

President Trump used his inaugural address at the United Nations on Monday to criticize the world body for not living up to its “potential” because of bureaucracy and urged member nations to reject “business as usual” and take “bold stands.”

“In recent years, the United Nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement, ” Trump said at the 72-year-old organization during a meeting on reforms.

Despite a ballooning budget and a doubling of staff since 2000, Trump said, “We are not seeing the results in line with this investment” and encouraged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to focus more on people than bureaucracy.

“We seek a United Nations that regains the trust of people from around the world,” the president said in his tightly scripted five-minute address. “In order to achieve this, the UN must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistle-blowers and focus on results rather than on process.”

“We encourage all member states to look at ways to take bold stands at the United Nations with an eye toward changing business as usual and not being beholden to ways of the past, which were not working,” he said, pledging the US would be a full partner in the reform efforts.

Trump, who will address the General Assembly on Tuesday, also said none of the 193 member nations should shoulder a “disproportionate share of the burden — militarily or financially.”

And he called for creating “clearly defined goals and metrics for evaluating the success” of the UN’s peacekeeping mission around the globe.

With the changes, Trump said, “I am confident that if we work together and champion truly bold reforms, the United Nations will emerge as a stronger, more effective, more just and greater force for peace and harmony in the world.”

In his address, Guterres said what keeps him up at night is the ” bureaucracy … fragmented structures, Byzantine procedures and endless red tape” of the UN.

“I even sometimes ask myself whether there was a conspiracy to make our rules exactly what they need for us not to be effective,” he said.

Later Monday, Trump was expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron.

But let’s say – in some crazy alternate reality – that you saw the Cleveland Indians’ AL-record 21-game win streak coming and you decided to bet just $100 at the start. How much money would you have today? Well, according to Las Vegas sportsbooks, you’d be a millionaire.

If some bettor had hypothetically placed a $100 bet on the Indians on Aug. 24 and let that bet ride through Sept. 13, this bettor would currently have $1,179,048. He broke down the bets in an incredible game-by-game chart.

The concept of “letting it ride” is basically an ongoing parlay. So while this bettor started with a $100 bet on Game 1, by Game 21, he or she would be putting $884,286 on the line. That would be a ridiculously risky – and borderline insane – thing to do when you started at $100. This bettor would risk losing out on everything with an Indians loss.

* Colors symbolize certain emotions culturally* Colors can reflect our personality and impact our mood* Make use of color psychology in your own home

Why not use the power of color to add your own personality to your home and improve your mood

6 Home Decor Colors to Enhance Your Mood

Red

Red’s wavelength can trigger the adrenal glands to secrete adrenaline, which may explain why the color is commonly associated with passion, romance and vitality. Scarlet reds can have a stimulating effect on the senses and the appetite, making it a nice addition to dining areas. Red is also great addition to bedrooms, powder rooms, or as an accent color to liven up a neutral space.

Blue

Blue is one of the most well-liked colors, associated with tranquility, balance and security. Many office spaces often use blue in interior design because it’s thought to encourage greater productivity. It’s also one of the least appetizing of colors, which is why some diet plans suggest eating off of blue plates to aid portion control. Pale blues are great in the bedroom to promote relaxation and restful sleep.

Purple

Associated with wisdom, royalty, and intellect, purple is linked with increased creativity and contemplation. It possesses the strongest electromagnetic wavelength, so it’s often used in optical illusions. Historically, purple was once the most expensive color to make, perhaps explaining why it’s commonly associated with luxury, wealth, royalty and the like. Deeper shades of purple like wine and eggplant will add a rich texture to your space, while lilac and lavender will add a whimsical touch.

Orange

A popular hue of the popular Mid Century Modern style, orange conjures feelings of heightened awareness, energy and excitement. It’s a great color choice for areas where social engagement takes place, as it’s linked with promoting conversation. Gyms also embrace orange as a motivational tool, because the warm tone helps spike alertness and is thought to increase energy levels.

Green

Green is considered to be one of the most relaxing colors to the eye because of its connection to nature and the environment. Like blue, it’s a low-wavelength color, so it may promote relaxation, calmness and safety. In fact, the U.S. Intelligence Department used green to signify a low threat level for terrorist attacks. Culturally, green is associated with money and financial security, which adds to its calming effect to the senses. Because green is a mix of yellow and blue, however, it’s associated with balance and stability. Hence, while it can be soothing, it can also promote greater concentration and focus.

Pink

In the past, pink was associated with femininity and childhood, but thanks to the millennial pink trend, this calming color has proved that it’s all grown up. Kendall Jenner reportedly painted her bathroom pink, citing it’s appetite-suppressing effects, but research has pointed to its possible ability to reduce aggressive behavior. Some prisons and correctional facilities have even painted the cells baker-miller pink to harness the color’s relaxing effect. If you’re intimidated by a vibrant bubble gum hue, try a more refined dusty rose or an on-trend blush.

MDC says, the sick Trump administration is more concerned about Image and Statistics.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security had planned nationwide raids to target 8,400 undocumented immigrants later this month, according to three law enforcement officials and an internal document that described the plan as “the largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE,” an acronym for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But after NBC News reported the plans late Thursday, the agency issued a statement saying it had cancelled nationwide enforcement actions due to Hurricane Irma and the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

“While we generally do not comment on future potential law enforcement actions, operational plans are subject to change based on a variety of factors,” ICE spokesman Sarah Rodriguez said in a statement. “Due to the current weather situation in Florida and other potentially impacted areas, along with the ongoing recovery in Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had already reviewed all upcoming operations and has adjusted accordingly. There is currently no coordinated nationwide operation planned at this time. The priority in the affected areas should remain focused on life-saving and life-sustaining activities.”

Prior to the initial NBC News report, another spokeswoman for ICE, Jennifer Elzea, had said the agency was “not able to speculate about potential future targeted enforcement actions.”

The raids were scheduled over five days beginning Sept. 17, and were called “Operation Mega,” according to the document, a memo circulated agency-wide in August.

It is not unusual for ICE operations to target immigrants by the hundreds or even low thousands. The higher-than-usual target number may have been partially driven by an effort to reach a deportation goal by the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, one of the officials said.

A new device can detect whether or not a tumor is cancerous in just 10 seconds – and should be in operating rooms as soon as 2018.

The cancer ‘pen’, called the MasSpec Pen, was designed by researchers at the University of Texas Austin, and it will be able to bring immediate diagnoses to surgeons’ fingertips as they are operating on patients.

When using it, doctors will simply place the pen on a patient’s tissue and give it a few seconds to read that tissue’s molecular composition. Then, one of two words will appear on a computer screen in the OR: ‘Normal’ or ‘Cancer’.

Experts are hopeful that the device will help surgeons conduct procedures that are safer, quicker and more precise, since they could potentially remove all cancerous tissue from a patient in one go.

They say it could bring down the number of patients who relapse after having cancerous tissue removed and need more operations to fight the disease.

The MasSpec Pen is more than 96 percent accurate in distinguishing diseased from healthy tissue in real-time while a patient is on the operating table.

Researchers who developed it hope it will enable the removal of all traces of malignant masses, reducing the risk of cancerous cells getting left behind.

The current state-of-the-art method for diagnosing cancers during surgery is called frozen section analysis.

This process is slow and often inaccurate: samples take 30 minutes to prepare and they then have to be interpreted by a pathologist.

And speed is important because the longer a patient remains on the operating table, the greater their risk of getting an infection or reacting negatively to anesthesia.

For some types of cancers, frozen section analysis is extremely unreliable, yielding false results in as many as 20 percent of cases.

But even this method for diagnosing is modern, as most pathology labs require several days to evaluate if cancerous cells remain in a patient’s tissue after they have had a tumor removed during surgery.

The researchers at the University of Texas Austin who developed the MasSpec Pen included experts in the medicine, engineering and chemistry fields.

Their research was funded by their university, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

They have filed US patent applications and they are working to secure worldwide patents.

The technology is expected to start being tested during cancer surgeries as soon as next year.